Stars of Blue
by Mama Bunny
Summary: [Game: Unison League] A series written as a gift! Dhalia is the leader of a guild, Stars of Blue. Her two sub-leaders are her cousin, Deema, and a knight, Ciresso. This is the continued documentation of their misadventures within the Unison League.
1. Follow the Gold

Follow the Gold

Disclaimer: I don't own Unison League, which is what this story is based on. I don't know a lot about the canon of the game. I've been making up my own story as I've played. All OCs present are actual players within the game.

FIC START!

 _Gold..._

 _I see it, everywhere... Golden objects of all kinds. Like curtains, flowing in the wind from the outside, or a golden kite, soaring through the sky without strings to keep it in one place._

 _And when I reach out for it, out of curiosity, I hear a woman's voice._

 _Follow the Gold, she says._

 _So I do. I try my best to follow it, but by the time I wake up... I never manage to reach it._

 _What is it? Is it money? Is it an actual gold vein in the ground somewhere? What is this gold?!_

 _..._

Deema Bluestar was tired of having to use the heaviest object they could find within their government-provided guild house to wake up her cousin, Dhalia, every damn morning. She stood at the foot of her cousin's bed before reaching to snatch the spear that was hanging from the wall and smashed it mere inches away from her actual head. It didn't leave a dent in her bed frame, as she'd been doing this for about a week now, and there was all ready a spearhead shaped mark in that exact spot.

"GAHHHHH!" Dhalia sprang right up, gasping for air. "Deema!? What the hell?! Every morning?" It took her a few seconds to catch her breath.

"You've slept well past noon since we got this place," Deema pointed at the window to remind her exactly how high the sun was up in the sky. "If we're going to make this whole guild thing work, we're gonna have to actually... Y'know, work?"

"I do work," Dhalia said. "We're pretty damn set as far as money goes."

"Money isn't how this place really works, and you know it. All money here does is go to the blacksmiths. All of the economy around here is based on the guild league and those who support it," Deema said, shaking her head. "Well, anyway, you're up now. Time to get started."

"With what? Last time we did a guild league match, we got our asses handed to us."

"Because we're the only two members right now, if you haven't noticed. C'mon. We should at least go find someone to back us up," Deema tried to be encouraging, but she didn't know how long it would take before she just gave up on her naturally lazy cousin. "If nothing else, go train or something. Get out of bed and show you give a shit about what we set out to do."

Dhalia let out a long yawn before picking herself out of her blankets and giving herself a good stretch."Maybe I should have founded the guild with my brother."

"So you'd both just sleep all day? That's... productive."

"Whatever," she grunted, shoving Deema out of her room so she could get herself equipped. It wasn't going to take long. She usually just wore the same old stuff anyway. She took her time brushing out her long, auburn hair and pulling it into twin braids. Dhalia knew it would be better if her hair wasn't getting in the way of her fighting monsters. Even so, as she topped her head with her Hime Crown, she couldn't get the voice she heard in her dreams out of her head. She didn't understand what it meant at all, even though she'd been having these dreams for quite some time. Dhalia went out of her way to make all the gold coins she could possibly make, figuring the dream meant securing their financial future. As soon as she was ready to head out, she snatched up her Gungir and headed out of her room. All the thoughts in her head was too much.

"Eat before you go," Deema said, also getting herself equipped.

"Nah, I'll stop by the meeting hall before I go out in the field," Dhalia said, closing the front door of their guild house as she stepped off their porch and headed into town.

"What the hell's gotten into her?" Deema asked as she strapped her quiver to her arm and picking up her bow. "If she didn't want this, then she shouldn't have told me to start a guild in the first place."

...

Dhalia headed up to the meeting hall, finding the entire place full of so many other league members that it was almost overwhelming standing in there. All she could hear until she got close to the merchants stands was a constant dull chatter, like absolutely everyone in the place was talking but no one was listening. She fetched her purse, ordering something she could eat before heading over to the warp crystal.

"Anyone interested in joining my guild?!" someone yelled right up next to her while she was trying to chomp on her sandwich, almost knocking her off her feet and causing the other half of the sub to fall from her hand.

"My lunch!" she gasped in horror, reaching to catch it when another hand caught it instead.

"Looks like it's my lunch now," the catcher said, looking at it. He then turned to look at her, a big grin on his face, with his fluffy blondish-brown bangs hanging in his face. "So what's on it?"

"Seared tauros meat sub," Dhalia answered, more annoyed than ever with the day so far. She'd been kicked out of bed only to trip and have some weird handsome stranger steal half her lunch! What luck! "With extra veggies."

"Oh man, now I want one," he said, handing it back to her. He walked up to the vendor and ordered one for himself. "Tauros meat's not something I get to eat every day."

"Ah... Right..." Dhalia rolled her eyes, doing all she could to politely ignore the guy who ate next to her after having ordered the same thing she was eating. She wasn't sure if she was creeped out or not by this.

She wasn't sure what to make of this, but considering she wasn't exactly happy with how the day was going, she decided to just eat silently as quickly as possible and head out. Dhalia wiped her face clean once she finished, heading over to the quests open board to confirm her next destination. There were a few open she wanted to try, so she got out a tiny little notebook and did some planning. Because of her rank within the league, there were only so many quests she could take within an amount of time. She scribbled onto her tiny pad, trying to divide her points evenly between trying to gain more gold, to increasing her rank, to training missions to increase her expertise with her spear.

"Miss?" a voice called her attention from it.

"Huh?" Dhalia lifted her head to see the same stranger from before standing there next to her.

"I think the blacksmith over there is trying to talk to you," he said, pointing over to where all the vendors were set up.

She turned to see that was exactly the case. The blacksmith came running up to her, holding up a box. "Dhalia, your order is complete," he said with a smile. "I managed to make all the infusions work like a charm..." The stranger slipped off on his own, heading towards the warp crystal to do his own questing.

"Fantastic!" Dhalia said, taking the box. She pressed on her Unison League badge, causing it to take the box into itself, placing it inside her digital inventory. "You're a lifesaver. Oh, right, what about this?" she made a motion up to the tiara on her head. "I want to take it further. Is that possible?"

"Oh- oh my..." the blacksmith said. " _That'll_ take some rare materials."

"Give me a list."

"But, you may not be of the rank needed to go where those spawn," the blacksmith said, shaking his head. "I can't allow you to-"

She stared at him, as if the red from her hair had caused her eyes to catch fire. "Give. Me. A. List." she demanded, putting her hands on her hips.

"...yes, Dhalia," he muttered softly, taking her pad and scribbling down some details. "Be careful, please."

"Yeah, yeah," she grunted, snatching the list to read it. "King Kepasas, huh? Thanks so much, sir. I'll be back~" Suddenly, her mood turned right back to being chipper. Well, as chipper as she could be because of the day she'd been having so far. She shoved the list into her pocket and turned to head towards the warp crystal.

She noticed that the stranger that had changed the course of her day didn't take long to determine where he was going. She didn't know his rank, but how was he going to be able to do everything he wanted if he was just going in blindly? But that's when she heard the voice from her dream, like an echo that drowned out all of the rest of the noise behind her.

 _Follow the gold..._

Dhalia took one look at her messy list from before and shrugged, tossing it behind her. She decided to run after the stranger with the hair that shimmered just like gold when standing next to the warp crystal. The crystal was still configured for wherever he was going, and she told it to take her to the same place.

The arrival into battle was instant. She landed in the front of the party line up, her spearhead in her left hand. The enemies were familiar. She'd been in here before. She thrust her spear into one of the creatures and it faded away.

"I didn't think you needed to come to the Ordeal of Light," the stranger said beside her after he had finished off another monster. "Considering your guardian spirit is none other than Luminous."

"...you looked at my profile while I was talking with the blacksmith," she didn't even have to think about it. There's no other way he could have known that.

"That is what its there for," he replied. "Your name is Dhalia Bluestar."

Suddenly she was annoyed with herself for not checking his information, but while in battle there was no access to it. Dhalia just told him that he was right, focusing on the battle in front of them.

Eventually they had gone through four waves, eventually facing off with a monster that looked very much like her guardian spirit, Luminous. But something wasn't right. Some of the details were different. Dhalia wasn't sure exactly what this was, but it didn't make sense for her to be pointing her weapon at Luminous!

The battle went just as expected. Many of their other party members through out spells and physical attacks, but the goddess before them was able to cast powerful magics to both assault the party and heal herself. It was a frustrating struggle, some party members fell against the might of Divine Luminous. A ray of light hit Dhalia and caused her to fall over. The stranger ran to stand in front of her, guarding her from a few blows.

"You don't have to do that," she said, raising her hands up to cast an Area Heal, giving both of them a rain of magical green light that soothed their wounds.

"Nonsense. I'm a paladin. I protect those around me who need protecting."

"You think I need your protection?" she snapped, using her lance to support her weight enough to bring herself to a stand. Concentrating her aura, she called forth a healing spell to numb the pains of her current wounds.

"Given the fact that this monster knocked you off your feet and sent you wailing in pain," the blonde stranger said, beginning to be irritated at her stubbornness. "I'd say yes."

"I've faced off with bigger fights than this."

"...and probably lost them, too."

"Why, you!" Dhalia turned her anger on him. "I'm a dragoon! I don't have to take your shi-"

One swift magical blow from the moon goddess while she had her attention focused on something else knocked her not only off her feet, but also completely out to boot. The stranger shook his head, giving a sigh, deciding that it would be best to at least take her back to her guild. If she didn't want him around, there was no point in trying to force it. He'd just take her to her guild mates and let it go. He looked for her identification badge, which she had tied to a sash around her waist. Her guild was the Stars of Blue. Not a guild he'd ever heard of. He picked her up into his arms as gently as he could manage, carrying her off the battlefield and back to the market.

No one seemed to notice he'd been carrying her through there. Even though the place was full of people. He made his way to the path that led to the guild houses, and through the wealthy rich ones, through the middle-line ones, all the way to the dirt ones where some of the houses were missing sections of the roof. He didn't want to seem rude and piss off what could be a potentially more stressful guild inside, so he simply just walked up to the door and rang the bell.

The door opened, luckily. There he found another young woman with a quiver strapped to her shoulder.

"Miss Archer?" he said. "Your guild mate has suffered injuries during a fight and I thought it would be a kind gesture to at least bring her home."

Deema stared down at her cousin. "All right, bring her in," she said, holding the door open. "Her room's over there. Just plop her in bed, she'll recover in a bit."

"Right, thank you," he said, giving a nod. He did exactly as he was told, carrying her over to her room and putting her down as gently as he picked her up. The room may not have been in the best shape, but it was decorated with cute things. Even if she put up defenses towards him, he didn't hate her. There had to have been some reason why she fought him off.

When he came out, Deema approached him. "Thanks for bringing her home. I'm Deema. Dhalia's my cousin. You are?"

"Ciresso."

"What guild are you in, Ciresso? I'll have to give a commendation to your guild leader." Deema expected him to say one of those big guilds, the ones loaded with money and resources, who did good deeds simply because they wanted the good favor of the community.

"Actually, I'm not affiliated. I've been looking around for a guild to join, as that's mandatory within the league rules, but nothing's really called out to me," Ciresso said, shrugging. "Most of them are so... I don't know, so arrogant that it's overwhelming. I get it, we're all doing this for money, fame, glory, but... Do we all have to be so focused on that to forget that the other people we're competing against are also people?"

"You certainly don't have the attitude befitting one of those hoity-toity guilds."

"I'd feel more at home in a crumbly mess like this place than one of those."

"...crumbly... Mess?!" Deema put her hands on her hips.

"I guess quick tempers run in the family," Ciresso said, turning to leave. "I'll get out of your hair, then. Tell Dhalia that I'm sorry I pissed her off so much. I really didn't mean it."

"You can tell me yourself," Dhalia's voice came from her room door. "I'm sorry that I got angry with you. I shouldn't have taken my frustration out on you." She was blushing almost as bright as her red hair.

"I'm not even mad," Ciresso said. "I figured there's gotta be some reason a lovely lady like you would have a trigger temper. I wasn't what put you in the mood to be set off, I was just the last thing that pushed you over the edge." He smiled and shrugged. "It's not a big deal. Though next time, you should probably do your best to stay focused on the monsters." He turned to leave, heading out the door.

When it closed, Deema stared at her cousin. "...well?"

"Well, what?"

"How'd you come to know such a beautiful stranger?!"

Dhalia turned away. "It was completely by accident."

Deema sighed. "There are some who say that nothing is completely by accident."

Dhalia started to head back to her room, when she heard the voice from her dream again. It told her to follow the gold. And there were so many ways that she tried to interpret that statement, but none of them had really been what she needed. Ciresso's hair was long and gold, which even reminded her of Luminous. Suddenly she just rushed out the door, slamming it behind her. Deema giggled.

Dhalia saw Ciresso walking the street, heading back up to the market. She followed him as fast as she could. "Ciresso!" she shouted, catching his attention.

He turned around. "Yes?" he asked.

"If you don't have a guild, that means you're homeless here."

"Indeed it does."

"Well. Our guild house isn't very nice, but..." she extended her hand to him, "You're more than welcome in Stars of Blue."

"With such a nice offer, I think I'll have to take you up on it," Ciresso said, taking that hand. "Though I've only known you a short while, I'm quite certain you and I will become quite the team."

"C'mon, then, if you'd like to get started on the paperwork for enrollment," Dhalia said. "I'm acting guild leader right now."

"You're the guild leader?!"

"Yep. I founded it myself."

"Why'd you do that?"

She didn't want to tell him about the dream she'd been having for a long time. Honestly, she was embarrassed about it. "There was something I came here to find," she said.

"And what is that thing?"

"If I knew, I wouldn't have said _something_."

"Ahhh."

They walked back to the Stars of Blue guild house and immediately began making Ciresso an official member.

Piece End


	2. Inner Anger

Stars of Blue

 _Inner Anger_

Disclaimer: I don't own Unison League, which is what this story is based on. I don't know a lot about the canon of the game. I've been making up my own story as I've played. All OCs present are actual players within the game.

FIC START!

It had been a pretty rough day for the Stars of Blue guild. They'd been matched up with an opposing team where every member was probably ten levels higher than they were, and they also had a full party of five. Dhalia had gotten punished for letting loose some colorful language towards them during the battle to boot. After being banned from certain activities within the League for a few days, Dhalia shut herself up in her room back at the guild house and refused to interact with anyone.

"I didn't realize that it was against the rules to curse in the middle of a guild battle," Deema said with a shrug as she sat in their shared room, staring out the window with a dejected expression on her face.

"They televise it," Ciresso said, letting out a scoff. "It's bad enough they put us in a match to humiliate us, but I'm pretty sure it's common knowledge by now that your cousin has an explosive temper."

"...you think it's that well known?"

"In the three weeks that I've lived here, I've seen probably thirty different acts of anger. Many of them to random strangers in the marketplace, and some of them to people actively trying to help her. Add about forty more to that if you count angry glares," he said flatly. "And I can imagine she's destroying her room right now, too."

"...no," Deema's voice was much quieter suddenly. "She'll probably crash for a while."

Ciresso started to get up and head over to Dhalia's door, but Deema insisted that he shouldn't right now. He couldn't help but be concerned.

"Ciresso."

"Yes?"

"I know you joined this guild because you're sweet on my cousin, so I'm going to give you a helpful bit of advice," Deema said sternly, turning around to address him. He'd never seen her get so serious before. "Don't."

"Don't what?"

"Just don't."

"Just don't _what_?"

Dhalia's door opened. "Would you move?" she asked, causing him to turn and see her resting bitch face.

"Of course," he said, stepping aside. "Can we talk?"

"About?"

He was hesitant as he answered that question. "Your... Temper?"

She didn't bother with one of her signature angry glares. Instead she just walked past him to the kitchen, fetched a snack cake from the Bluestar Cousin Secret Stash, and started to stuff her face. "Look," Dhalia said once she'd finished and unleashed a belch, her voice still in that emotionless monotone. "I've known you for three weeks. That doesn't mean you get to be privy to all my details."

"I'm not asking to be privy to all your details," he said. "But I do want to know why you walk around so damn angry all the time."

Deema walked into the kitchen, shaking her head at Ciresso vigorously.

"I'm not angry now," Dhalia said, staring at him.

"Because you're coming down from an intense adrenaline rush after that fight."

"I'm heading out to the market. Something I have to pick up today." She turned around and walked out, securing her equipment and fixing both her identification card and her guild badge pin onto her as were the rules of being outside of the guild house within the League's territory.

"I just told you not to," Deema said. "Why the hell would you persist when I've known her all my life, and I know exactly why-"

"Then you tell me," Ciresso cut her off.

"Excuse me?"

"If you've known her all your life, then you can tell me what's wrong."

"There's nothing you can do about it," Deema insisted.

"I've thrown myself into your lot when I agreed to join this guild. Now that means things that this guild does, both accomplishments and failures, go upon my League record. Because of the risk I'm taking by associating myself with the guild, I have a right to know what crawled up your cousin's ass and died." Ciresso took in a deep breath.

"...I can't tell you. It isn't right for me to say anything," Deema answered extremely quietly before she just left the meeting room of the house and headed up to her own private room.

Instead of chasing after her, he decided to peer into Dhalia's room, as she had left the door open. He had only been in there once, when he carried her here to rest the day they met, but he'd never taken the opportunity to look around the room. He knew that girls were the type to use their personal space to display what was important to them. There was a desk in one corner of the room, bookshelves with both novels and comic books, a hammock full of plush toys from various events, and a cute bed with more blankets than anyone ever needed. This was all pretty typical stuff. Nothing to really be worried about. On her nightstand, he noticed something else. A framed photograph of a younger Dhalia standing with a man taller than she was. They had pretty similar facial features, even though his hair was blue instead of red. When he lifted it up, a few papers fell out from the back of the cardboard that held the frame together. He opened one up.

 _I have information about His Holiness Darien Bluestar._

 _Come alone to the racetrack._

Ciresso gasped, equipping himself as quickly as possible. He rushed out of the house, heading up the path to the market. Whoever had sent that note had to be causing some sort of trouble.

...

Dhalia walked through the stands where the newly constructed Liminmin Racetrack had just been built. She found a man wearing a long brown coat, his collar popped up around his face. "Are you the one who called me out?" she asked.

"I am."

"What information do you have about His Holiness?" she asked.

"Take a seat."

Ciresso had been running for a while, finally laying eyes on her. He noticed just how shady the guy was sitting there trying to conceal his identity. He couldn't see this going well. He wanted to call out to her, but he also didn't want her to lose her shit with him. So he decided to hide in a place close to them to overhear their conversation. Only if things got violent would be intervene.

She sat down, but not very close to him. "Please, if you-"

"I'm going to need compensation for this. It's difficult to get information from the outside while you're a member of the Unison League."

"Y-you didn't say you needed some sort of payment," Dhalia said, starting to stand back up.

He snatched her wrist and forced her to sit. "Let's start by you handing me every gem you have in your personal account."

Ciresso snatched the hilt of his sword. He knew it.

But Dhalia was not helpless! She was a dragoon, after all. She reached for her spear to make a lunge, but he'd all ready gotten the hand she was well-coordinated with. Her spear fell down onto the stands, making a loud clatter that no one else noticed because one of the races was taking place and everyone was shouting to cheer on their chosen liminmin to victory. "I won't pay you anything unless you actually have helpful information!" she growled at him.

"I'm afraid you will pay, or I'm going to carve that beautiful white rabbit tattoo right off your pretty little thigh and place it on his grave."

"...g-grave?"

"Mhm."

She shook her head. "No... now I know you're full of shit!"

Before Ciresso could make it there to fend off the fiend, Dhalia's aura had started to cause energy to swirl around her. Even though this criminal was holding a sword up to her, she was in total defiance. It didn't take long for a magical burst of purple energy shot out from her free hand to knock him over. He ran over there anyway.

"Dhalia..." Ciresso said, leaning over to get a good look at her. She had tears streaming down her face. "...are you all right?"

She wiped her tears away and tried to look like her usual self. "...I'm fine. What are _you_ doing here?"

"Actually, because I know you're not a much of a gambler, I was about to ask _you_ that," he replied. "But before we talk about that, I'm going to take care of this loser." He snatched the guy by the collar and took him over to the authorities to report him for his conduct. When Ciresso got back, he found that Dhalia was headed somewhere else. "Wait," he called to her.

She slowed down so he could catch up. "Okay, I get it. You looked in my room for answers and then you followed me here when you saw that note," she grumbled.

"Why would you think that?"

"Because you knew that guy tried to attack me when we're clearly not on a League Sponsored field. The only times we're allowed to point these weapons at people are during the guild league matches," Dhalia answered, heading into one of the nicer shops of the district.

"...all right, you got me. But I was extremely concerned about you."

"Did you get your answer?"

Before Ciresso had the chance to answer that, he noticed that her eyes had become fixated on something on display. It was a very ornate crescent moon-shaped pin that shimmered with the dull, pale light of the full moon. When he looked at Dhalia because he wanted to answer her question, he saw the reflection of that pin within her eyes. She wanted it so badly, it was the only thing in the store she could see, and based on what he saw just with quick glances, there were plenty of super special items for sale in there. He decided to do the kind thing and buy it.

"How much for the moon pin?" he asked the saleswoman.

"That one's fifty dark medals," she replied.

"Dark medals...?" he repeated, somewhat confused. "Listen. I've got three million gold coins-"

"That pin is a sacred relic, blessed by Nyx. It has to be earned with dark medals," the saleswoman explained. "All the stuff in here are blessed by the spirits that watch over the world."

Ciresso had never been in this store before, and hearing that, he felt incredibly stupid. "Oh. My apologies." he said, noticing that Dhalia had all ready walked out before that exchange was even done. "Dhalia Bluestar...!" He ran out of the store, finding her heading back in the direction of the market. "Why do you keep doing that?!"

"Because I'm trying to avoid the subject that you're so keen on bringing up," she said honestly. "It's not out of malice or anything towards you."

"It's hard not to see it that way."

"Truth is, I would be willing to pay everything I have in my account for information about my father," she said. "I've been wanting to know where he is, what he's been working on all this time. I don't like talking about him."

"Are you mad at him?"

"Huh?"

"Your constant anger. Is it because you can't tell him off for not being a part of your life?"

Dhalia shook her head. "No..."

"...you little liar," he grunted, snatching her shoulder to force her to look at him. "I can't believe you'd try to hide it after telling me that much."

"I'm not mad at him. That's not a lie," she insisted. "I understand the fact that he has to work far away from others."

"He's a priest, right?"

"Yep."

"Yeah, those temple types tend to need to be secluded to keep their spirits pure and their minds away from temptation," Ciresso said. "Certainly not the life for me."

"Me, either. As much as I'm not fond of the way the Unison League works, I'm happier here than I ever was living within the sacred land around the Tower of Judgment," Dhalia said, stopping by the mailbox to pick up a few packages, and placing them within her digital inventory via her guild badge.

He thought about that for a moment. He knew there were people who lived in seclusion to worship the gods around that area, as the gods had created the tower to test the humans, and people were always attempting to pass its many tests to unlock the ability to take on advanced classes. If she used to live there, that meant her father was a priest to one of them. But there was no way she would have been able to just leave if that were the case. The lineage of priests tended to be carefully planned out specifically to deepen the spiritual connection between the priests and the spirits they channeled.

"...you're a runaway."

"Not exactly. I agreed to come here to the league and fight so I wouldn't have to become a priestess," she explained. "I get to be myself as much as I want! I don't have to marry to keep bloodlines pure, I don't have to learn and practice rituals every day to keep the gods happy, and I don't have to wear that itchy uniform. I'm here to exist for the entertainment of everyone outside the walls of the Unison League."

"But you still miss your father and you want your freedom."

"...damn straight I do."

"Then how'd your cousin get roped into this?"

"I told her to come with me, we're starting a guild. She didn't want to come, but she didn't want me to be all alone within this... This _mess_."

Ciresso nodded. "It is a mess indeed." He thought all about why he'd come here to the league, knowing full well what it was used for. "How about you and I sit down and have lunch right quick?"

"Fine. Dragon meat pizza."

"I could go for that."


	3. Connection Ordeal

Stars of Blue

 _Connection Ordeals_

Disclaimer: I don't own Unison League. The players and the guild featured in this story are real, and each character belongs to the player.

FIC START!

Dhalia sat at the desk in her room, going through her collected items. She had turned over her sack and dumped all the items out all over the place to take inventory. A few keys, different sorts of medals for different prize redeeming campaigns, shining tickets, and a few notes from the local blacksmith were sorted and she scribbled down all of that onto a page in her notebook.

"Only twenty five?" she asked with a frown. "I'm gonna have a lot more questing to do..."

She put it all back neatly into her sack, even though she knew that once she got into a fight it was all going to become a massive mess again anyway.

There was a knock at her door.

"What's up?" she asked, reaching for her spear.

"Is it safe to open the door?"

Dhalia sighed. "You only saw me in my bathrobe, Ciresso. It's nothing to panic about," she said. "And yes, I'm dressed."

The door opened slowly and Ciresso let out a long breath of relief when he saw that she wasn't just fully dressed, but fully equipped. He had to stand there for a bit, trying to gather his thoughts before he could actually say anything. He'd been trying to find the opportunity to ask her to spend some time alone with him, but he'd been so afraid of rejection that he hadn't wanted to give it a shot. But there she was, waiting for him to spit out what he had to say. "I was wondering if you were at all interested in heading to the Linimin Races this afternoon?" he said, almost nervously.

"No, sorry," she said. "Got a date."

"A date?!" Suddenly, he looked defeated. Had some other man moved in before he had the chance to say anything to her about the feelings that had been growing in him since he'd met her? Of course they had, Dhalia was lovely even if quick-tempered and awkward.

"Not like _that_ ," Dhalia grunted. "I mean that since the ordeals rotate, I have to take advantage of what's out right now. I have a dark goddess to confront."

"And by confront, you mean run her through with your spear a few hundred times."

"Yes."

Ciresso nodded. "Understood. If you need me, just signal. I will be there. I promise."

"Thanks." she walked past him, starting to head out the door. Ciresso just stood there until the door slammed shut, leaving him alone in the guild house to sort out pretty much everything on his mind.

Clearly, she was going through the dark ordeal because she wanted to get ahold of those medals so she could buy that moon pin she looked at the other day. If he was ever going to get his feelings across, he was going to need to do something to get her attention. Something big, like... Getting that moon pin for her! He flicked his bangs out of his face as he started to go through his own inventory. He didn't have any dark medals collected. Which made sense, he didn't really want anything that he could get from the dark ordeal.

That's when he felt something on his shoulder.

"Miiiiiiiiin!"

He turned around to see a floating limimin there wearing a cowboy hat. "Hey, Explorermin," he greeted the hovering fellow as he held onto a huge messenger bag. "What did you bring for me this time?"

Explorermin opened up the bag and showed him all sorts of goodies from around the world outside the wall that contained the contestants of the Unison League. There were augment materials, shiny eggs, some gold coins, and a few strange looking cookies with the shape of a Limimin imprinted on the center. "Lots of stuff!" he declared. "Sending over to your digital inventory."

"Can you tell me what these are?" Ciresso asked the bunny-like critter.

"Limimin cookies! They are food for us Limimin. Very valuable to many a person within the league, as much of the behind the scenes business is taken care of by Limimin," Explorermin explained. "There are places that will not accept money, but will only accept these yummy cookies." Once Ciresso told him exactly what he wanted for the next expedition, Explorermin flew off out the window.

"I wonder..." he said, pocketing the cookies with the rest of his inventory. There had to be some deal he could make with something as valuable as this. He decided to head out and look around.

...

Dhalia let out a yawn as she had successfully completed a mission within the Dark Ordeal. She'd only managed to secure two medals from it, but that was all right. It was two more medals than she had before. Progress was progress. She reached into her bag to pull out a book, letting herself sink back into the wall she was leaning into. It was a fantasy adventure starring a man who wore armor that looked like a dragon. A great way to take a break.

Soon she heard footsteps nearby.

"Is that you, Dhalia?" the voice asked.

"There's probably a million Dhalias in here," she replied, not looking up from her book.

"Your name is Dhalia Bluestar, daughter of His Holiness Darien Bluestar," the voice said, causing Dhalia to stand up on her feet and draw her spear to point it right at his heart. "Holy shit, your temper hasn't changed one bit, now has it?"

"Who are you, and what the hell do you want with me?!" she growled at him. "It is not common knowledge that I descend from Luminous's temple."

"Have you forgotten me all ready?"

"You have three seconds to answer me before this spear lets loose your blood," Dhalia said, putting the blade up against his skin. A few drops slid out along the curve of his neck. "I've all ready been reprimanded for quite a few things in the past, don't think I won't skewer you just to get a few moments of peace!"

"Dhalia," the young man said, pushing the spearhead away from his neck. "I'm a member of the Bluestar family, too. Just like you and our fellow cousin, Deema."

"By my father's second brother," Dhalia said, pulling her spear back. "Are you... Mizzet?"

"The only son of the youngest of the Bluestar brothers, yes," he said, wiping his neck of the blood. "You really have grown a lot since I've last seen you, Dhalia."

"I'm glad to see that the Bluestar family still lives, but what the actual hell are you doing in the middle of the Unison League?!" Dhalia asked.

"You are a criminal for not accepting the ways of the temple, as am I," Mizzet said gently. "You and I are the same, nearly."

"How is that? I went against the traditions of the temple because I wanted to remain myself and not marry someone I didn't love," Dhalia said, putting her weapon away completely.

"...I could not marry, either," Mizzet replied. "I, well... I have no interest in women. The moment it got out that I was putting off a wedding to someone I was engaged to simply because I would not impregnate her, I was sent here."

"Holy shit."

"My thoughts exactly, cousin."

Dhalia shook her head. "Well, come on then. If you're stuck here, it means you're going to need to sign up with a guild so you can have a place to live." She motioned for him to follow. "And you're in luck, as Deema and I are the leaders of a guild."

"That's great! Making a name for yourself must be easy in a place like this if you and Deema are managing to handle it," Mizzet said, making Dhalia glare at him.

"Just what are you implying?!" she snapped.

"I didn't mean to trivialize what you've been through. I'm sorry for pissing you off," he said. "What I meant to say is thank you for offering me a place within your organization."

"...you're welcome."

...

Ciresso walked through the marketplace. He didn't see any shops openly taking Limimin cookies as payment for anything, except for one. There was the huge racetrack where people could bet the cookies to win more cookies. He couldn't help but walk over there to ask about how it all worked. If he had more of the cookies, that would only give him more opportunity to use them to his advantage. He approached the office of the racetrack, where a big, gruff man with dog-facial features was writing up on a chalkboard the odds of different Limimin racers winning.

"Ya's wanna bet?" the dogman asked.

"Do I!" he said. "Tell me about your establishment, good sir!"

"Ya's bet cookies on who ya's think will win. If ya's get first or second place, ya's win more cookies," he explained in a very rough sort of voice. Each word sounded almost like it was a bark, but somehow it came out as a word. Ciresso had never spoken to someone like this before. He wasn't the type to ask him about that. He just wanted to stay focused on the betting.

"How much is this worth?" Ciresso asked, placing what cookies he had on the counter.

"...three hundred," the dogman replied. "Which one ya's think gonna win?"

A lovely woman on the other side of the counter with ribbons in her hair said, "I'll put three hundred on the Starmin." When Ciresso got a good look at her, he noticed she had a quiver strapped to her back and used her other hand to hold onto a very ornate bow.

"Sold," the dogman said, passing her a ticket.

"Place your bet," she said. "If you're not scared."

Ciresso pointed up at the board. "I'll put three hundred on the Moonmin!" he shouted.

"Moonmin, eh?" the dogman said, handing him and ticket and collecting all the cookies he had. "Go right through there to watch the race. Good luck to ya's."

He looked at the picture of the Moonmin, figuring that because he was doing all of this to win something for Dhalia, that something bearing the moon would only bring him the best of luck in doing so. She was the daughter of a priest who lived in the name of the Moon Goddess, after all. It made sense for her to have such a strong connection with the moon.

When he got into the stands, he noticed that the lady archer was there. That face seemed so familiar to him somehow. He just couldn't seem to remember where.

"So you placed your bet, hmm?" she asked.

"I did," Ciresso answered, wondering why this woman cared.

"I'm glad. It's been so long since I knew victory over one of my greatest rivals," she said, smiling. "Your vanishing made life so boring."

"Excuse me?" Ciresso asked, shaking his head. "I'm sorry, but the only rival I remember having was a arrogant, competitive snot who had this odd habit of sicking his pet foxes at me whenever possible..."

"Oh, Prince Ciresso, you wound me!"

Ciresso blinked a few times in confusion. No one within the league was ever to know of his heritage. He reached for the hilt of his blade. "How do you know who I am, witch?!"

The archer glared at him. "I'm only your rival from childhood..."

"...Nami?!"

"I'm sad it took you this long to recognize me."

"Under that getup, who would?" Ciresso asked. "I don't remember you wearing ribbons or dresses back in the royal court."

"I've missed you so much, prince," Nami said teasingly. "Life in the palace is boring without a sparring partner."

"I've discarded the title. Please don't use it."

"You ran away to have some freedom, but you're stuck here within the walls of the league. Nothing but entertainment for the outside world until you die," Nami said, shaking his head. "Truth is, I'm here because the king would like to see you home. You've played enough. Be nice and don't make life so difficult for your family's servant."

"I'm not leaving. My father has engaged in absolutely terrible practices to gain the kingdom and the royal family more money," Ciresso said sternly. "Go home."

"If I can't return with you, then I'll be sent here all the same. No one does executions anymore," Nami said, frowning. "No one does dungeons anymore, either. Every land on the continent has decided to just give up all of its undesirables to the Unison League."

"...that doesn't surprise me at all."

"They think it's fun. They hold gambling rings based on the guild battles. They laugh at all the suffering they watch," Nami said, shaking his head.

" my father started coming up with corrupt ideas to fix the world, this was the best one he could come up with. Why do you think I'm in here? I know he watches my progress," Ciresso said, looking down at his ticket. "And that means I'm getting exposure for this tiny little guild that's welcomed me. Home to two cousins, one of which I've..."

"You've fallen in love?" Nami asked. "I never thought I'd see the day."

"She's not like the ladies in the royal court. She's loud, obnoxious, opinionated..."

"Those don't sound like endearing qualities to me..."

"But underneath all of that, she's genuine. She's real. And she can hold her own in a fight, too."

Nami laughed. "You've changed since coming here, haven't you?"

"Ha. Maybe I have."

"If that's the case, I might just want to stay here, too. It might be a prison to the outside world, but there's more freedom in here than there ever was back at the palace."

"You said it."

...

Dhalia gathered up all the paperwork to enroll Mizzet as a member of the Stars of Blue. She had him sign it and used her guild leader pin badge to make it official. "Here you go," she said. "You are now a member of the Stars of Blue. One of the rooms upstairs will be unlocked with your name on the door now. It's all automatic."

"I really appreciate this," Mizzet said, bowing his head in respect. "Just like Uncle Darien looked after my father, you've continued the family legacy of looking after each other."

"It really is no big deal. We can use all the help we can get. It's a small guild, but I'm sure we'll grow more powerful as we all work together," Dhalia said, grinning. "I believe that."

"What makes you believe it?" Mizzet pondered aloud.

"I don't know. I just... Think I understand something now much better than I ever did while on the outside."

"Ah, okay."

Dhalia turned to head up to her room. She needed a long nap to charge her body so she could go back out later to the Dark Ordeal again.

...

Ciresso shouted with all his force to try to get Moonmin to move during that race, but ultimately, the poor little guy only managed to place third. He didn't get any cookies back, which meant he had no idea how he was going to get that hairpin Dhalia wanted so badly. With a heavy heart, he left the racetrack and wondered around almost aimlessly. All he wanted to do today was give her something, anything to boost her up and show how much he cared about her. He and Nami walked through a few shops, and this is where they both overheard that there was some sort of black market dealer that sold rare, precious items in exchange for Limimin cookies.

"...if only I knew that!" he cursed his rotten luck.

"Let's hope the Explorermin brings back a whole bunch more," Nami said.

"Yeah..."

"So, you're staying at the guild house for your current guild, huh?"

"I am."

"You guys have an open spot?"

Ciresso shrugged. "I'm a sub-leader, so I think I can get you all set up... If you really want to stay here. You have the opportunity to leave, you know."

"Naaah," Nami said. "I'd much rather stay here and see just how many more things I can beat you at," he said, holding up his prize for having won the Limimin race.

"You actually WON that?!"

"Of course I did, princey!"

"Whatever you do, please stop calling me that... I don't want it to get out that I'm royalty..."

"I won't tell a single soul, if you let me stay in your guild."

"Ugh. All right. Fine. You can stay."

"Whoo! I get to compete with my old rival once again!" Nami said, laughing. "I'm going to kill all the monsters first, defeat all the opponents harder, and get all the much better equipment!"

"...If that's what'll make you happy, sure," Ciresso said, shrugging. "I honestly have more important things to worry about right now than beating you at everything."

"You think I can be a woman in here, instead of it just being a disguise?"

"You want to be?"

"I honestly would love that."

"Then do it!" Ciresso said loudly. "Do what makes you happy!"


	4. Ignition

Stars of Blue

 _Ignition_

Disclaimer: I don't own Unison League. All OCs featured in this story are real players.

FIC START!

Another day, another dungeon fighting against monsters. It didn't matter how many times the group had gone in to this one mission, the monsters they were supposed to slay to reach the goal just would not appear. Dhalia had lost count of how many rounds they'd taken on since the day began with a nice "I'm so close to getting the right to become an advanced class, why don't all of you come and help me with the final mission!" Mizzet, Dhalia, Ciresso, Deema, and Dhalia were a mostly balanced team, and they made short work of whatever came their way. Even Nami, who wasn't allowed to battle as the limit upon active party members at once was just five, provided support from the sidelines, throwing healing pills at them. By the time the rest of the team looked up at the sky, sunrise had turned to sunset. This seemed like a mission in futility.

"I could have been in the wind ordeals today," Deema sighed. "That'll go away if I don't jump on it soon." Her pouty face may not have been what everyone else was showing, but it pretty much wrapped up how everyone was feeling. The day had been wasted, as Dhalia was no more closer to getting that special amulet that would allow her to become the Archdragoon rank.

"I'm sore all over," Mizzet said, rubbing his backside as a nasty monster had hit him there. Ciresso gave him a mild heal, but it wasn't enough to recover everything. "I have to go home."

"Sorry, everyone..." Dhalia muttered as she watched her entire guild turn away from her, heading out of the arena to go get some much needed rest. "...I really did think it would help us all."

"Help us all?" Nami asked. "How would helping you get past your trial to become the next level of dragoon help everyone in the guild? I'm under the impression that you asked us all to help simply because you're guild captain."

"You really think that?" she asked, shocked to hear someone would even consider that she'd abuse her power this way.

"I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. You wanna know how many corrupt guild leaders there are? Apparently, it makes great entertainment for those on the outside, so they don't even try to stop it from happening. Why write drama when it's real, right?" Nami said as she followed the rest of the guild out. "It's a long walk back to the guild house. We might get there by time for a midnight snack if we start now."

She headed the same way, but at nowhere near the brisk pace that everyone else was. She looked up at the now starry sky as she walked. While it wasn't that long of a journey back to the marketplace, it felt like hours. The weight of that loss, the thought that her own guild might think so little of her like that... Dhalia couldn't help it. She wasn't made to be guild leader material if she couldn't inspire people to move as a unit. To think of the greater whole of the guild. But... _Was_ she acting out of the best for everyone else? She wanted that rank, to become an Archdragoon, because she knew it would enable her to use more powerful abilities in battle, which ultimately meant that there would be a much better success rate within the league battles. That was for the good of everyone else! That most certainly was!

She looked up at the moon in the sky. "Luminous..." she whispered. "...I know that because I left your temple, you aren't supposed to hear my words, but... I certainly don't feel like I'm leading for the right reasons. I guess trying to get my father's attention and show him that I have a free life now would be the most selfish motivation I could have, huh? Do you think you can get the word out for me? Let him know in dreams or... Something. Show him that I'm doing my best to live even though I'm in the middle of this mess."

The moon said nothing back. It never did.

When she turned to look around and see if anyone was nearby, the entire guild had left her behind. She had a few apologies to give out. There was no reason to waste everyone else's time simply because she wanted attention from the media.

Just then, she heard the rustling of bushes somewhere close. When she took her attack stance to defend herself from oncoming attack, she noticed there was a person in the bush.

"Come out!" she shouted.

The person slowly came out, revealing he was holding a camera. "I... I'm sorry. Please don't kill me! I'm only doing my job!"

"And what is that?" she asked.

"To film you," he said, shaking.

"Me?" she asked. "You know who I am?"

"You're... Dhalia Bluestar," he answered. "Deadly dragoon and leader of the Stars of Blue guild."

She flicked her red bangs from her face and put her spear away. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Oh thank the Gods!" he sighed, putting away his camera. "Your temper is well documented, Miss Bluestar."

"But you will answer a question or I might just turn you into skewers to feed my Behemoth," she said forcefully. "Exactly why is your job to record me?!"

"I'm gonna get thrown in here for getting caught anyway, I might as well just tell you what's going on," the cameraman said, motioning for her to come closer. "Your guild has quite a few high profile members in it, and there are people who will pay handsomely for us to keep track of every one of their movements within the Unison League."

"There's not just me?" Dhalia asked.

"I trust you don't know much about your guild members and where they come from," the cameraman said, pulling a file out of his jacket. "Because there are people who know absolutely everything."

She took the file from him. "Who are these people?"

"I'm sorry. I don't know. I was just hired and given that information," he said. "All I can do now is hide my identity, join and a guild, and hope they don't come after me." The cameraman did all he could to hide his face, running into the shadows and leaving her alone.

"...what is all this?" she asked, looking down at the file.

...

Business as usual at the guild house once the day was one. A few members set into the kitchen to make a somewhat decent meal for everyone else. Ciresso was at the stove this time, and he was cooking up a mad storm in there. Every time someone came to ask if he needed help, he simply told them to go rest. He was going to make something wonderful from his homeland. He just wanted a chance to be the one to make Dhalia smile. She seemed so down here lately.

Outside the kitchen door, he could hear other guild members speaking.

"Gah, I wish I could have done some other trials today..."

"It wasn't a total waste of time. We did get a lot of good spoils from the fights."

"Yeah, but how often is she going to come quest with us when we're close to achieving the next rank of our specific class?"

"Nami. She's not going to ignore us when we're as close as she is to her goal now."

"You believe that because you honestly have faith in her qualities as a leader, or because you're her cousin, Mizzet?"

"I believe her because I believe _in_ her? How's that for an idea?"

In came Deema's voice. "Oh shut up, both of you! I won't have you doing this nonsense in our guild house, right in front of me, no less!"

Ciresso let out a sigh. This guild wasn't going to last if it was going to continue on like this, now was it? The oven made a tiny little _ding!_ He pulled out a tray of warm, meat and veggie filled dumplings. The whole kitchen smelled amazing. He grabbed it with his potholders and used his but to push the door open when he carried the tray out to where everyone was sitting and waiting to eat. "Time to eat!" he said, placing the tray on the table in the center of the room. "Come and get it!"

Everyone managed to get their hands on a few. Everyone gave him rave reviews on the dish, except he didn't hear a single word from Dhalia. In fact. She wasn't even there.

"Oh dear," he sighed, heading up to her room and knocking on the door a few times. "Come on down, dinner's ready."

No answer.

"I know you're disappointed with today, but cheer up. Even if no one else wants to help you with getting your Archdragoon rank, I'll still help you. I've all ready gotten to the advanced class, I'm sure that I can be very helpful!"

Still no answer.

Ciresso just decided to open the door slowly. "Dhalia?"

Her room was all nice and tidy, but there was no Dhalia to be seen.

Immediately he went back downstairs. "All right," he said. "Anyone know where Dhalia is?"

"She's not here?" Deema asked. "I thought she went upstairs to rest."

"You don't think she's out battling at night, do you?" Mizzet pondered aloud. "The monsters are stronger at night. She might get seriously hurt."

Nami looked down at the dumpling she was eating. Now she felt guilty for having planted the idea of corrupt guild leaders into Dhalia's mind. "...this is all my fault for what I said to her..." she put it down and picked up her equipment. "...I'll go get her and bring her back."

"You can stay put," Mizzet muttered.

"Mizzet, knock it the fuck off."

The door opened and Dhalia walked in. She was surprised to see everyone there looking like they were about to barge out and start some sort of conflict with other local guilds. "What the hell is going on?" she asked.

"You weren't here and we all got worried," Deema said, cocking her head to the side. "You okay?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine," she said quietly, heading right up to her room. "Just. Go back to what you were doing." The door emblazoned with the mark of the crescent moon slammed shut.

Ciresso picked up a handful of the meat dumplings and placed them on a plate to save them for her. With that sort of reaction, there was no way he'd be able to check up on her.

...

Dhalia sat at her desk, turning on the one little lamp she had. She slapped the file onto her desk, staring at the front. A blank manilla file folder. Like it was collected with other files of its kind. Who knows what was written in there. What kind of information they'd found on the rest of her guild members. Part of her didn't want to look at it. It would be like prying into the private lives of everyone she'd chosen to put her trust in. It ate at her the longer she stared at the folder.

So she decided to hide it with all her other things at her desk and pick up her book about the warrior who fought in armor that looked like a dragon. Ah. Her favorite book. She imagined the warrior being frighteningly handsome as he fought on his adventures. It was so easy to get lost in her fantasy of wanting to be whisked away by this brave warrior. Hiding away, running away from everything that she ever was expected to be. Perhaps that's why she liked him so much. He was a runaway prince who just wanted to be free.

Dhalia sank back into her chair, and when the chapter she was on ended, she looked back at her desk. She knew that folder was still there, under all her belongings. She could even see it through all of those things. But she was going to start the next chapter of her book, and get lost in that instead of getting lost in her guild members' private information. She tried to turn the page, but... Instead she marked her place and put the book back with all her other collected novels about this dragon prince's adventures, got the folder back out, and decided to crack it open. Then she shut it before she could read anything inside it.

Soon she turned the lamp off and stepped away from her desk entirely. With the light off, she couldn't read it. She'd just go to sleep! Like any other normal night, she'd go to sleep and wake up somewhere around noon the next day, and life would go back to the way it was! She hoped that file would just go away somehow while she was asleep.


	5. Dreamlight

Stars of Blue

 _Dreamlight_

Disclaimer: I don't own Unison League. All OCs featured in this story are real players.

FIC START!

Every morning, without fail, Deema would grab her cousin's spear and make a charge at her to wake up. This particular morning, Ciresso stood at Dhalia's door far earlier than Deema would think to do it. He held in his hands a book that he'd been reading since he woke up. It detailed the histories of all the classes throughout the land, and there was plenty he wanted to talk to her about. He knocked on the door.

There was no reply.

"I don't know why you bother," Mizzet said as he passed through the hall. "Dhalia's ability to sleep through literally anything is legendary through the Bluestar family."

"I just don't understand why Deema attacks her to wake her up," Ciresso said, shaking his head. "Seems a bit violent, doesn't it?"

"That might come from the blessings," Mizzet said. "You know, her father being a priest and all." He shrugged as he headed down the stairs, ready to eat breakfast. "I believe it's my turn to make breakfast, so I'd best get started."

"Blessings?" Ciresso asked aloud. He'd been in Dhalia's room a few times, and once walked in on her in her bathrobe accidentally. Something that might have been awkward, but they seemed to have been able to mutually laugh it off. Maybe he could wake her up peacefully. He turned the knob slowly to find that it wasn't locked.

As the door swung open, he saw her sleeping there. She had her limbs all strewn out, her red hair was shaggy from being laid upon so long, and her blanket only covered half of her body. As he walked up to the bed, he noticed a sparkle of light shining above Dhalia's head.

"...no, my sweet prince,,," she murmured, "…don't leave me behind…" He could see her flinching, and he couldn't help but wonder if it was some sort of nightmare. She rolled over, grasping her blanket and pulling herself into a ball.

Ciresso blushed. "I… I would never…" he said, taking a few steps closer.

That's when he saw a hand come from that light to sit on her head. He didn't know what to think about that. He noticed that the hand was of an arm wearing a long white sleeve, with golden embroidery. Ciresso knew he'd seen that before, but he couldn't place it. He was too busy noticing that a hand was coming out of the light to give Dhalia comfort. He ran through facts in his mind that he knew about her family. Her father was a priest, so high ranked that he was given the title of 'His Holiness'. A priest to the goddess of the moon, Luminous. He watched as the hand caressed through her hair in a very motherly way. And Mizzet mentioned blessings just earlier.

 _Blessings,_ Ciresso thought, _Those are bestowed by ritually paying tribute… if I remember correctly, the more powerful blessings come with greater tributes… If Dhalia gets comfort from the goddess herself, what kind of tribute did it require?_ He didn't want to impede on this. Last thing he wanted was to be on the bad side of both the girl he was developing a thing for and the goddess that looked after her. Ciresso started to back away so he could head out the door.

"...huh? What's the captain's door doing open this early? Shouldn't piss her off by leaving it that way…"

Click.

Ciresso looked behind him. The door was closed. There was a good chance of disturbing them if he tried to open the door now! _Damn it, Nami…_

Dhalia mumbled something else, but he didn't make out the words. It was too quiet, even though it wasn't a whisper. The hand was still running through her hair, as if offering comfort. He tried to back away towards the door again. Trying to control just how nervous he was, each step seemed like it took forever. He felt every single drop of sweat in every single pore of his body.

"I understand now," Ciresso whispered once he finally reached the door. "I won't ever disturb your sleep again… forgive me, oh Goddess…"

"You aren't disturbing anyone," a soft female voice said gently. It was the most soothing voice that Ciresso had ever heard. Just hearing it, all his anxiety melted away. "In fact, I believe she needs you. It is why I told her to search for gold, after all."

"Luminous?" Ciresso asked, shaking his head. "You really _are_ the goddess, aren't you?"

"I am Luminous, and bound by the pact forged between the High Priest and I, this young lady is under my protection." the goddess said gently. "For all matters in life, not just in battle. Please wake her more gently than her cousin does. It is one reason she is afraid to sleep."

"How could there be a pact forged that would require so much of the goddess of the moon?"

Luminous let out a sigh. "I'm afraid that I cannot say. That is also a part of the pact."

Ciresso gulped. "I only wish to befriend, please, I mean no-"

"You're in love with her," she cut him off. Her tone turned serious suddenly. "Do not lie to a goddess."

"...I… yes. I am." he confessed, "I'm hopelessly in love with her, and she barely even notices me. Sometimes I swear she ignores my subtle hints on purpose, too."

"This child doesn't know how to process love. It confuses her. And when she's confused, she shows it through anger."

He nodded, as if he finally understood more about Dhalia's actions, having heard that."...if I may be so bold, do you have any hints you can give me?"

"Do as I did with my husband," Luminous said kindly. "Do not give up. Show her love whenever you can, and eventually you'll get through."

"...all right," Ciresso said. "I'll keep trying."

"You had better keep trying," she continued, "I will not forgive you should you hurt her."

He couldn't help but wonder if that pact meant the goddess would also enact revenge against anyone that would break Dhalia's heart. "Should I go?"

"No, I'll be going. She needs you now." The light began to fade, and the hand of the goddess slowly faded away. Ciresso felt her presence leave the room. "Take care of my Dhalia, Prince Ciresso."

"I will. You have my word."

Once the light was gone, Dhalia was left to sleeping on her own. After that whole otherworldly experience, he wasn't exactly sure what he should do. He approached her again, finally going over to put his hand on her forehead.

"...hrrr,,," Dhalia moaned, her eyes opening very slowly. "…has the prince of my dreams finally come to take me away…?"

"Prince of your dreams?" Ciresso asked. "What does that even mean?"

She sat up, pulling her blankets around her defensively. "Ciresso?!" she asked. "What are you doing in here?!"

"I, _uhh_ ," he held up the book, "I was doing some research and I figured out the exact reason as to why you didn't find the amulet you were searching for yesterday. I wanted to tell you about it today so we could go find it."

"You woke me up over that?" she asked, annoyed. "Well thank you for thinking of me…" Dhalia reached for the cover over her window to let the sunlight in. "Maybe because you woke me up earlier than Deema would, I should just skewer you on my favorite spear."

He wondered if he should tell her that he found her being comforted during her sleep by an actual goddess, but before he had the chance to say anything, she was all ready up and dressed. "…I'm under the impression that you didn't get a lot of rest…" he said. "You have bags underneath your eyes."

"I was in the middle of a panic attack last night," she replied.

 _That explains why Luminous came to you…_ Ciresso thought. "Why? Was it what Nami said to you last night?"

"No. I ran into this weird guy on my way home…"

"Did he hurt you?"

"You know I can defend myself."

"Yes, I know that, but I mean, still," Ciresso said. "For this guy to have led you into having a panic attack, something had to have happened."

Dhalia went over to her desk and pulled out the folder she went to hide from herself last night. "Apparently, this folder has information about every single member of our guild in it," she said. "Stuff about me, you, all of us."

"Did you read it?" Ciresso asked, suddenly nervous.

"No, I believe that would betray everyone. We all have pasts that we don't want everyone else to know about. Including me," she replied, shoving it into his hands. "There are people who are stalking us, Ciresso!"

"...oh shit," he said. "All right. Good thing we'll all be together for breakfast. We need to talk about this."

"Actually, you're right. Let's go."


	6. Breakfast Table

Stars of Blue

Disclaimer: I don't own Unison League. All OCs are real players, this guild actually exists within the game! Do look us up. :D

Note: Still using Notepad for the moment. Forgive errors and the like.

FIC START!

Deema had been reading the Unison League newspaper while waiting for breakfast. She'd been going through the classifieds, as she was quite sure that what the guild needed at this moment was a cleric. No one they had managed to gather here lately had very much experience healing, and she figured it was going to cost them in the long run. Ciresso and Dhalia were great at being the front line. The lancer class excelled at doing damage like crazy, and with Dhalia using a spear, applying her anger to it in battle, it was hard to see anything other than victory in the future. She kept looking over ads, trying to see if there was a talented cleric willing to join this mess of an ensemble.

"Hey!" Dhalia's voice said in her ear, loud and obnoxious enough to call her from her concentration. "If you'd mind, there's something I need to talk to the entire guild about."

"Must be important if you're up before noon," Deema said teasingly.

"Cousin..." Dhalia grumbled. "This is serious!"

"Then what is it?"

Dhalia started using that tone that barely anyone could stand to grab everyone's attention. "Everyone get around this table right now!"

From within the kitchen, Mizzet said, "Yeah, but I don't want the pancakes to burn. Give me a second, damn it."

Nami came out from hiding under the kitchen table, but she still had her hands over her ears. Ciresso stood there, looking incredibly uncomfortable at her side, wondering if she really was the one he wanted to grow close to. Mizzet came out holding a very tall stack of pancakes and placed them at the center of the table. Deema put the newspaper down. It seemed like everyone was ready to hear what she had to say, finally.

"Last night," Dhalia said, having calmed down, "I was followed by some weirdo. When I caught him, he told me that he was being paid to gather information about us for whoever it was that hired him." She took the folder from Ciresso's hands and slapped it onto the table. "Thing is, I didn't want to read it, because I know that we all have things we don't really want the world to know about. All of us are within the Unison League for a reason."

"What?" Nami asked. "Actually, that doesn't surprise me in the least. Since they televise what happens in here." Shee shot Ciresso a knowing look, which caused the young man to frown for a moment while Dhalia was looking elsewhere. "Why go and make shows about drama, when there's so much drama that happens in here, right? Lazy producers only want to sell what will make them easy gold."

"I don't want to violate the trust between us," Dhalia said honestly. "I really don't. Since we're stuck in this place until the day we die, we're family now."

"Once you get in, you never get out," Deema agreed. "What do you want to do now?"

"Don't we have to figure out who's spying on us?" Mizzet suggested. "Who here would be so important to the outside world that they'd want that kind of information about everyone within the guild?"

Ciresso sighed and said, "Perhaps it would be best if everyone knew what was in this folder. If we're all family, like you say, it would be best that we don't have secrets. That way we can get past all this anxiety and focus on the real problems."  
Nami shook her head. "I don't like the idea, Pr... Ciresso!"

"What kind of secrets could a lovely lady like you have?" Deema asked Nami very sweetly.

"I... I-I don't have secrets!"

"With that kind of reaction, it's hard to agree with you..." Mizzet said, starting to serve up everyone a plate with a stack of pancakes. "Honestly, I don't have anything worth hiding. You all know that I'm cousin to both Dhalia and Deema, all three of our fathers are brothers. There isn't much else to know."

"Does that mean your father's a priest, too?" Ciresso asked.

"...might be, might not be," Mizzet shrugged.

'If no one's going to be honest, then I'll just read the thing out loud," Ciresso said, starting to pick up the folder. "That way everyone can hear it."

"That's not fair. I don't want everyone to know about where I come from, and honestly, you shouldn't, either!" Nami said forcefully, snatching the folder out of Ciresso's hands. "It could be utter chaos!"

"If we don't know about who we were in the outside world, how can we figure out exactly who the hell is spying on us?!" Ciresso asked, snatching it back.

"But-"

"Besies," he said, "I was going to have to tell her the truth anyway."

Deema gasped. "Tell who what?"

Ciresso shrugged. "So come on, Nami. None of us are going to let anyone else's secrets get out."

"I swear if this doesn't work out, I'll riddle you all with arrows," Nami declared, crossing her arms.

He took the folder into his hands and opened it. Just as advertised, pictures of all of the group present were inside, each one clipped to a piece of paper detailing all sorts of information regarding their lives outside of the Unison League. Where was he going to start? "Who's all right with me reading theirs first?"

"Go with mine," Mizzet said, stuffing his face with pancake.

"Mizzet Bluestar. Son of the third Bluestar brother. Known great magical potential, was supposed to take a position within the temples, but was ostricized due to gender treachery," Ciresso read from his page. "And that's literally all it says about you."

"Gender treachery?" Deema asked, blinking in confusion. "Really?"

"It's a crime in many places outside of the walls of the Unison League. But here, I don't have anything to hide," Mizzet said. "The truth is, I'm happier here with you guys than I ever would be leading some temple. I don't care about the Gods, and I really don't care for the ritual rites. Leave that to Uncle Darien. That's not my life."

"That's not too much of a secret," Nami said. "You don't have to worry about that getting out. A lot of people suspected of gender treachery are thrown in here. You can see them all over the place, if you're just looking close enough."

"Who should I read next?"

Deema raised her hand. "I'll go next, then."

Ciresso read from her page. "Deema Bluestar, daughter of the second Bluestar brother. Never considered for a role within the temples due to low magical potential. Turns out that if you hadn't come to join this place of your own volition, they were going to send you here for not being what they needed at the temple. But because you made the decision on your own, you weren't charged."

"...do what?" she asked. "They were gonna get rid of me for not being good enough?!"

"That's what the file says," Ciresso said.

"Well fuck them, too."

"The appropriate response," Mizzet said with a nod.

Ciresso glared at Nami. "I'm reading yours next."

"Very well, then," she snapped at him.

"Alias, Nami. Real name, unknown." Ciresso read. "Taken from his home village to be a castle servant at a young age. Became a member of the Prince Guard of Regovas upon reachng age 12 due to excellent marksmanship. Sent on a mission to recover his target from the Unison League, but decided to stay to live a life of a woman."

"...wait," Dhalia breathed out. "You're telling me that Nami is- was...?!"

Nami sighed. "Now you know. Born male. But... I don't want to be. I don't feel it. My whole life, decisions have been made for me based on the fact that I was born a certain way, when honestly... I like how I am right this moment. They'll never see me as who I am inside."

"Assholes," Mizzet said, shrugging. "You are a woman, and a lovely one. It may not matter from the view of a man that has no real interest in women, but..."

"Thanks, Mizzet. Really."

Ciresso looked at Dhalia. "You and I are the only ones left."

Dhalia turned away from him. "Read mine. I think we all know where I come from."

"The story regarding Nami isn't over," Ciresso said. "There's more to it."

"There is?" she asked.

"Oh yeah," Nami said. "Read it, old friend."

"Like I said," Ciresso said quietly. "Ciresso Regovas, Crown Prince and heir to the throne." Dhalia gasped as she turned back around to look at him. His eyes were locked onto the paper in his hand. "Upon taking part in a senate meeting, the prince decided to take his life into his own hands and leave the kingdom to participate in the Unison League only to rebel against the crown. Ever since, he has been taking refuge within the Stars of Blue guild." He let out a sigh. "I'm sorry I hid it from you, but I had to."

"Prince?" Dhalia asked, shaking her head in disbelief. "A runaway... prince..."

"I am," Ciresso said, looking up at her.

She blushed as she stared at him. "Just like... my favorite... book..."

"The Dragon Prince books?" Deema asked. "You still have those?"

"Of course I do~ I actually pay smugglers to bring me the new books when they come out!" Dhalia smiled. "I've been in love with the Dragon Prince pretty much as long as I could read."

Ciresso couldn't believe how adorable that expression was. She was positively beaming! And here he thought this would put a rift between them... There had to be a way to use this to his advantage. "I guess it's your turn, isn't it?"

"Read it. I don't even care." She was so giggly.

After running his eyes over it, Ciresso started to put it down. "Perhaps it's not that big a deal, Dhalia."

"Everyone else did it. I'm the guild leader. Makes sense for me to do the same thing as everyone else," she said. "Tell them everything there is to know about me."

He hesitated. "If you say so..." Looking at the page again, he read from it. "Dhalia Bluestar, daughter of the first of the Bluestar brothers. Chosen to ascend to the position as priestess of Luminous, but refused it. Upon hearing her decision to be within the Unison League, His Holiness Darien Bluestar preformed a ritual to sacrifice his life in order to form a protection pact with Luminous. Now the guild leader of the Stars of Blue, well known for her anger outbursts, is a formidable fighter who wishes to show her father how free she lives away from the temple life."

She stepped back. "My father... is... dead?"

Everyone else around the table to turned to look at her.

"But the reason I fight is because I want him to see it-"

"Dhalia, please, calm down."

"YOU DON'T GET TO SAY THAT, CIRESSO."

He snatched her hands to hold her still. "Your father obviously loved you. He save his life to make sure you'd have the goddess of the moon looking after you when he couldn't."

She snatched her hands back, running up the stairs and slamming her door shut.

"That means there's no priest to Luminous now, huh?" Mizzet asked. "You might be a prince, but the goddess may not respond to prayers without a priest at the temple. She might be who they're spying on."

"I don't care if there is a priest or not," Deema grunted. "The temples deserve to fall. They just treat us as objects to speak to the gods and not as people. I don't want that kind of life."

Ciresso put the folder down on the table. He couldn't help but run several scenarios through his head regarding this information. Clearly the people on the outside were interested in both of them. "We have to protect each other," he said. "We're al going to be targeted by someone. Religious nutjobs, people who want to be rid of all those who live a path of 'sin', hell, even those who hate the royal family. We have to look after each other. We're a guild, a family in here."

Everyone agreed to that. 


End file.
